Improvement in gas-lighting apparatus



A. POTTER. Gas-Lighting Apparatus.

niting fisvices- Pa tented July 8,1813,

' F i G l \unun UUU U ITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

ARTHUR POTTER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN GAS-LIGHTING APPARATUS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 140,591, dated July 8, 1873 application filed December 12, 1872.

"which the burners are lighted in rapid snecession.

Figurel is a perspective view. Fig. 2 is a plan view, showing the arrangement of the commutator, electro-magnets, and the mechanism employed for working the same. Fig. 3 is a view of the arrangement of a gas-burner and its electro-mag'nets.

A is a commutator, the face B of which is divided into as many contact pieces, a, as there are burners C to be lighted. D is a vertical shaft. It forms contact with the di visions a by means of a roller, E, 011 the end of the arm F attached to it. G are electromagnets, which are set obliquely'so that their magnets will attract not only on the opposite ends of the armature H, but on opposite sides to give a horizontally-vibrating motion to the armature lever I, whose pallets I) take alternately into the teeth or notches of the wheel J on the shaft D. A spring, K, is attached between the armature-lever and the tension-screw L.- As shown at Fig. 3, each burner (J has a small electro-magnet, M, attached;'the wire 0 from the section a of the commutator leads to the same. The armature N has a wire, d, which makes contact with a wire, 0, from the burner, which is insulated from the electroma-gnet, its current being through the gaspipe of the building. 0 is the battery of the electro-magncts G, and P the battery of the commutator. The electric circuit is formed by a suitable key. As the current is closed and opened the electro-magnet-s and the spiralspring K operate to vibrate the armature-lev'er I very rapidly,'the pallets b of which, ta-kthe arm F passes from one section, a, of the commutatorto another, at that instant the current is broken, and again formed the next instant when it touches the adjacent division.

The revolving of the contact-wheel E over the face B of the commutator serves also to open and close the gas-burner circuit by separating and bringing together the wire d of the electro-ma-gnet M and the wire 0 of the burner 0, whereby a spark is produced suificient toignite the gas.

The commutator should be placed at any convenient position. .In the case of a chandelier it can be fixed within the same, and the wires 0 branched oil from the contact-plates a to the electro-magnets M of the respective burners, a main wire leading from any distance to the operator.

For the use of secondary or induced currents the commutator may be used, and the attachment to the burners merely an insulated wire. For this purpose a very small inductioucoil or iriction-machine is all that is required. The end and'design ot' the invention is to light any number of gas-burners with a minimum force of electricity, so that a current suflicient to light one burner will light any number by repeating in rapid succession by means of the commutator.

' I claim as my invention- 1. The face or plate B of the commutator,

divided into any number of contact pieces, a,

in combination with an intermittent rotary conta-ctformer, E, of any construction,for the Witnesses:

EDMUND P. Cocnnnn, FRANCIS D. PASTORIUS. 

